Dr. Ingo Lieberwirth
Ingo Lieberwirth studied physics at TU Dortmund University and earned his Ph.D. at Eindhoven University of Technology in the group of Prof. Piet Lemstra. His work focused on the orientation-induced crystallization of polymers. Following his Ph.D., he joined the group of Prof. Gerhard Wegner at the MPI-P. During a research stay at Kyoto University in 2003, he worked in Prof. Seiji Isoda’s group on the structural characterization of the self-organization of polyelectrolytes using cryo-electron microscopy. In 2006, he took over the head of electron microscopy at the MPI-P and subsequently expanded it into a high-performance core facility. In total, the facility now comprises 2 scanning and 3 transmission electron microscopes, as well as preparation lines for cryo-electron microscopy and for cell preparation.
Research Interests
There are many research areas where materials science and biology intersect. Our research interests lie precisely at this interface, which we primarily explore using electron microscopy techniques. When nanoparticles come into contact with biological media, a multitude of proteins instantly adsorb onto these nanoparticles, thereby altering their chemical identity. A protein corona is formed. Using electron microscopy methods, we investigate both the interaction between nanoparticles and proteins and the endocytosis of these nanoparticles. For this investigation, we apply electron microscopy methods developed in structural biology to our materials science questions. For this purpose, we use single-particle analysis methods, which were originally developed for the 3D reconstruction of protein structures.
In the same way, we also use these methods to elucidate self-assembling, short synthetic peptide structures. Self-assembly leads to the formation of highly defined fibers, whose atomic 3D structure we can reconstruct using electron microscopy methods.